Hollywood in Seattle

Those of you who have stuck with me since 2009 may remember that year as the summer when a movie was filmed, in part, in and around my house. 

I was evicted from my house for 17 days; joined the neighbors in watching as much as possible of the filming; examined with awe and loathing what the set directors did to the interior and exterior of my house; met and shook hands with actors Tobey Maguire and Laura Linney; chatted at some length with the very approachable director/writer Jacob Estes; and even served as an extra, down at the King County Building Department office, standing in line behind Maguire as his character waited to get a building permit. 

In sum, for a couple of weeks I had a chance to consider myself part, in some tiny degree, of what Angelenos call "the industry."

After the filming, the movie (The Details) seemed to languish in the bowels of Hollywood.  But it was shown at the Sundance film festival in January 2011, where it was picked up by The Weinstein Company (formerly Miramax).  It's now scheduled for nationwide release on September 7.

But here in Seattle, we didn't have to wait for autumn.  The Details was shown last night, one showing only, at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF).  I, of course, went to see it -- largely, but not entirely, to see how my house would appear up there on the silver screen.

The movie, a "dark comedy," involves a young doctor who, with his wife, buys a house in Seattle and runs into immediate conflict with the local raccoons; tangles with a friend over a one-shot affair with the friend's wife; and is harassed by a crazy woman next door, the epitome of the neighbor from hell, whom he unwillingly makes happily pregnant and accidentally causes to be assassinated.  I had read the script while the movie was being shot, and it was fascinating to see how the movie on the screen  reflected, and did not reflect, my expectations. 

Estes took questions from the audience following the show.  He noted that, following Sundance, he had re-edited the film and re-shot a few scenes in other cities, primarily to make the plot flow more intelligibly.  I was disappointed that at least one of the craziest scenes in the script -- a dream sequence involving a house filled with racoons -- had been toned down a bit (a racoon does not flush the toilet after using it in the film!), and was over more quickly than I would have predicted from the detailed descriptions in the script.

In fact, my reaction to the racoon scene was perhaps my general reaction to the movie as a whole.  Scenes that could be read at leisure in the script, and pictured as lasting several minutes, were over in the film almost before they could be digested.  Filming that seemed to take hours in 2009 was edited down to minutes or less in the film.  We all know that, in the filming of every movie, far more footage is shot than ever appears in your local theater.  But my contact with The Details made me really understand for the first time the "waste" of time necessary to come away with scenes that convey exactly what the director wants to say.  And sometimes, the director doesn't really decide what he wishes to say until he reaches the final editing process.

This "cutting room floor" effect hit me particularly hard.  My non-speaking part -- consisting of standing in line behind Tobey Maguire -- was part of a scene with a bored bureaucrat that must have been shot twenty times, with cameras filming from different angles each time.  I fully recognized that the scene merely presented some background and wasn't a key part of the plot development.  But it was fun, the camaraderie among the director and actors was enjoyable, and I looked forward to seeing my face on the movie screen.  But not only was I cut from the scene -- a major loss to the film, I might note -- but the building department scene lasts no more than five seconds, I'd estimate, near the very beginning of the film.  The humor of Maguire's frustration in dealing with the bureaucrat -- admittedly irrelevant to the plot -- didn't survive the cutting..

The scenes inside my house? Totally eerie. To see rooms that I occupy daily -- albeit gaudily decorated -- up there on the screen in front of the entire movie-viewing world was a weird experience. And there was my refrigerator, looking the same as always but with someone else's magnets stuck on the door! And the front door to my house, which looks a bit weird even in "real life" -- a Gothic arch with a stained glass window -- showed up in a number of scenes. The camera seemed positioned to include it frequently in the background of interior shots.

All in all, from my perspective the entire production of the film, culminating with my viewing of the final product last night, was highly enjoyable -- and educational.  People I talked with -- "normal" people who had no personal involvement with the film -- also seemed to have enjoyed it.  I recommend giving it viewing when it comes to your local theater in the fall.